Reading about Jesus’ resurrection is always a great way to start the day! The events that Easter morning are thrilling amazing.
The encounter with the disciples on the way to Emmaus has always fascinated me. They’re walking along, and Jesus joins them, but they don’t know that it’s Jesus. He opens the word to them. In the midst of their confusion regarding Jesus’ death, He explains from the scriptures that the messiah had to suffer. The disciples are enthralled. Over dinner, Jesus reveals himself as he gives thanks and breaks the bread – one of the ways He still reveals himself to us, the broken bread of the Lord’s Supper. He then disappears.
What must that moment have been like? The later said, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” His conversation with them made them long for God’s presence. That’s something God does. As He gives us His love and presence, we cannot help but be thrilled and desire more.
I want to focus in on something related to that, but, perhaps, a little strange. It’s the last verse of the book which says that, after Jesus’ ascension into heaven, the disciples, “were continually in the temple blessing God.” They were in the temple.
Go back to chapter 1 for a moment. Where was Zecharaiah when he learned he would be the father of John the Baptist? Where did Simeon and Anna proclaim that God had kept his promises? Where in Jerusalem did Mary and Joseph find Jesus when he was 12? Where did Jesus do much of his teaching the last week of His earthly life? Now, where do the disciples gather?
In the Temple.
Why is this important? The Temple is where God was present for His people. When Solomon built the first temple, that was part of his prayer that God would be present and hear the prayers of all who pray “toward this temple,” meaning that they pray to God. God kept that promise. But Israel did not. They worshiped false gods and did many things that made God angry, and one day Ezekiel saw a vision of God’s glory leaving the Temple. God’s presence was no longer there.
In Luke, God’s presence returns to the Temple. God dwells among His people once again. Jesus is that presence, and, even after he ascends, the disciples gather in the Temple – gather around His teachings (aka the Word) – and worship once again in God’s presence.
The Temple is gone now. And that’s okay. We don’t need it anymore. God is present with us in Jesus – through the Word and the Sacraments. Everywhere we go, He is there. Teaching. Tending. Loving. Sending. He has restored what by sin we lost. God is with us. Whatever you face today – no matter how hard – remember He is with you, and He’s on your side.
Lord Jesus, thank you for being with me and for me. Like the Emmaus disciples, I don’t always recognize that you’re there. Show me in your Word and Sacraments that you will never leave me or forsake me. Amen.
The encounter with the disciples on the way to Emmaus has always fascinated me. They’re walking along, and Jesus joins them, but they don’t know that it’s Jesus. He opens the word to them. In the midst of their confusion regarding Jesus’ death, He explains from the scriptures that the messiah had to suffer. The disciples are enthralled. Over dinner, Jesus reveals himself as he gives thanks and breaks the bread – one of the ways He still reveals himself to us, the broken bread of the Lord’s Supper. He then disappears.
What must that moment have been like? The later said, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” His conversation with them made them long for God’s presence. That’s something God does. As He gives us His love and presence, we cannot help but be thrilled and desire more.
I want to focus in on something related to that, but, perhaps, a little strange. It’s the last verse of the book which says that, after Jesus’ ascension into heaven, the disciples, “were continually in the temple blessing God.” They were in the temple.
Go back to chapter 1 for a moment. Where was Zecharaiah when he learned he would be the father of John the Baptist? Where did Simeon and Anna proclaim that God had kept his promises? Where in Jerusalem did Mary and Joseph find Jesus when he was 12? Where did Jesus do much of his teaching the last week of His earthly life? Now, where do the disciples gather?
In the Temple.
Why is this important? The Temple is where God was present for His people. When Solomon built the first temple, that was part of his prayer that God would be present and hear the prayers of all who pray “toward this temple,” meaning that they pray to God. God kept that promise. But Israel did not. They worshiped false gods and did many things that made God angry, and one day Ezekiel saw a vision of God’s glory leaving the Temple. God’s presence was no longer there.
In Luke, God’s presence returns to the Temple. God dwells among His people once again. Jesus is that presence, and, even after he ascends, the disciples gather in the Temple – gather around His teachings (aka the Word) – and worship once again in God’s presence.
The Temple is gone now. And that’s okay. We don’t need it anymore. God is present with us in Jesus – through the Word and the Sacraments. Everywhere we go, He is there. Teaching. Tending. Loving. Sending. He has restored what by sin we lost. God is with us. Whatever you face today – no matter how hard – remember He is with you, and He’s on your side.
Lord Jesus, thank you for being with me and for me. Like the Emmaus disciples, I don’t always recognize that you’re there. Show me in your Word and Sacraments that you will never leave me or forsake me. Amen.
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